Ron Strayhorn is an ambitious hot rodder. By day he's a mild-mannered executive running GM's western region service and parts operations, but when he's not on the clock, he's scheming new and more creative ways to go fast.

A few years ago, Strayhorn teamed up with Pro Mod champion Harold Martin and his company, Martin Motorsports, to build a pro-style, big-block-powered first-gen Camaro that used an early version of the GM Performance Parts Ram Jet intake (Martin's company helped develop it) and a custom, tri-blade throttle body. The fuel-injected combination helped propel the F-car into the 8.50s at more than 160 mph.

Strayhorn called on Martin again to assist with his latest project: revamping a tired, Chevy II former drag machine into a contemporary street/strip competitor. The heart of the renewed beast would be a supercharged and electronically fuel-injected LS engine, but with a twist.

Make that several twists.

First off, Strayhorn wanted the classic, through-the-hood style of a GMC-type Roots blower rather than the typical centrifugal, screw-type, or Eaton-style blowers seen under the hood of most late-model LS vehicles. And while such a huffer is a rare sight atop an LS engine, it's not unprecedented.

However, we're willing to bet there's not another supercharged LS combination that is tuned for three specific fueling options. Strayhorn's is, and with the flip of a switch, his blown LSX-based engine alternates among 93-octane pump gas, 108-octane C12 racing gas, and--corn lovers take heart--E85 ethanol (with an octane rating of about 100).

2/23The starting point for the engine project is GM Performance Parts' LSX high-performance-designed iron cylinder block. It is delivered semifinished, requiring honing and decking before the engine assembly begins. In this case, the bores were hogged out to 4.130 inches.

"I've always been fascinated with blower cars and the menacing look of one poking through the hood--and that distinctive whine," Strayhorn says. "In light of the success we had with the injection system on the Camaro, I was encouraged to see what we could do with this project."

Deciding to build his blown, tri-fuel engine on the LS-engine platform was triggered when he discovered Blower Drive Service (BDS) offered manifolds and blower kits to fit GM's 21st century V-8 platform.

"A couple of years ago, I'd already purchased a 496-inch rotating assembly for a big-block blower combo when I saw a story on the BDS system for LS engines," Strayhorn says. "I decided right then and there that it would take the project to a higher level of distinction."

Putting the core engine package together was mostly straightforward. It consists of easily attainable forged aftermarket rotating parts. The 8-71 blower, intake manifold, and basic injection system were all off-the-shelf parts from BDS. No problems there. Martin Motorsports fabricated a few parts, however, including coolant crossovers that run between the heads and unobtrusively beneath the intake manifold, as well as a SuperChiller-style charge cooler similar to those used on supercharged offshore racing boats.

The E85-compatible hard parts were carefully integrated by Martin to add a unique element to the project. They include the injectors and fuel lines, but they're nothing that isn't readily available to racers.

The project's magic is in the engine controller's instantaneous changeovers for the different tunes. For that, Martin developed three distinct engine calibration maps and relied on a FAST XFI controller to hold and administer them. (FAST also supplied its XIM ignition controller to drive a set of GM coil packs.) To switch fuels, Strayhorn simply selects a tune by turning a dash-mounted selector and, if necessary, manually changes the fuel tank source. A laptop is only required if fine-tuning of a particular fuel table is desired--but the calibrations are each tuned for street/strip performance.

The Chevy II even has separate fuel tanks for the gasoline and ethanol. Beneath the trunk floor is a modified original tank that features baffles to suit the requirements of the EFI's requisite high-pressure fuel system, while inside the trunk is a 5-gallon fuel cell for the alternate fuel--and it doesn't matter which tanks holds which type of fuel.

A pair of hand-operated valves in the trunk directs the fuel delivery from one tank or the other. A power-operated setup was considered, but Strayhorn felt the manual option was the safest way to go, especially at the dragstrip.

7/23Airflow is handled by a set of Martin-modified Profiler cylinder heads that are based on GM's LS1/LS6 cathedral-port intake design. And while the LSX cylinder block has built-in provisions for six-bolt-per-cylinder clamping to secure the head under high boost, the Profiler heads have a production four-bolt design. That shouldn't be a problem on this engine, as its approximately 8 to 10 psi of boost won't come close to the 20-plus pounds of boost the LSX block is designed to withstand with six-bolt heads.

The engine is built using GM Performance Parts' LSX cylinder block. Because it's cast in iron, it can be bored--unlike the aluminum production blocks--and it's designed to support big-boost combinations (see "LSXasaurus," HOT ROD, Nov. '08). In addition to the assembly work at Martin, Engine Systems in Tucker, Georgia, also contributed to the short-block buildup.

The engine combo, combined with the trio of fuel setups, was proven on Martin Motorsports' engine dynamometer--with surprising results. The relatively high octane rating of E85 enables more aggressive timing than premium pump gas, so nobody was surprised when the dyno pulls on the E85 tune produced greater results: about 805 hp and 670 lb-ft versus 750 hp and 640 lb-ft on 93-octane pump gas--although 750 streetable horses on pump gas are certainly nothing to apologize for.

The eyebrow raiser was the E85's trumping of the 108-octane C12 racing fuel's performance. It delivered approximately the same peak numbers as the premium pump gas but with a stouter power curve. It should be noted that the charge cooler was not activated during the dyno tests. Harold Martin suggests the natural cooling attributes of the alcohol-based E85 contributed to its significant performance boost over the higher-octane C12.

"That's one of the benefits of running alcohol at the dragstrip," he says. "The engine runs cooler, so you get a denser charge, even without an intercooler."

There is power to extract from the engine with more tuning time. Martin suggests there is perhaps 15 to 20 percent more power to be had from the gasoline tunes when their charges are blown through the functioning cooler--and more from the E85 tune, too.

By the way, boost pressure for this combination was about 8 to 10 psi for all three fuel types.

Strayhorn plans to put this triple-threat LSX to the test on the dragstrip as soon as the car's assembly is completed. He'll also hit the streets in his alternative fuel-powered Chevy II, undoubtedly blow-ing minds and turning heads when he does.

Nip And TuckBuilding the supercharged LSX engine--and even tuning it for three distinct fuels--was a lot easier than installing it in the Chevy II.

Fitting the LS within the Chevy II's chassis involved obtaining an aftermarket, racing-style, sheetmetal oil pan and modifying it to make the front section fit around the car's old-school, recirculating ball steering linkage. The result is, essentially, a notched pan that works very well. Fourth-generation F-car LS1 oil pans have a fairly straightforward, low-profile oil pan design, but they won't work in all retrofit applications (and stay away from the winged Corvette production pans).

While numerous aftermarket suppliers now make bolt-in engine-swap mounts for LSX conversions, for Strayhorn's Nova, Martin Motorsports fabbed up a set of mounts as part of a chassis-clearancing initiative required to make room for the headers.

Likewise, Martin fabricated custom undercar headers for the Chevy II rather than using one of the many small-tube engine swap header kits that are available today. Martin Motorsports fabricated the bends before sending them out for coating. The result looks great, and Martin can replicate the swap parts for others.

With more than 800 hp so easy to achieve in a thoroughly streetable project, it looks like E85, a Roots blower, and the LS engine are the cornerstones of a powerful homestead.